“A trifle perhaps. But not silly.”
“What brings you to the park?” He asked as they began to walk side by side.
“My father thought it very important that his daughters visited the parks often when we were younger. He used to say London was much of the world but not all of it.” She smiled.
“That’s very true.”
“I think he wanted us to get out of the dirt and soot of it, and I always loved the Dinosaur court,” they both smiled at this.
“I remember as a child the large beasts fascinated me. There were even some model dinosaurs that had been made when they opened the exhibit. My father managed to track one down for me. I wonder what happened to it.” She said absently. “And you? You come to the park to sketch?”
“Yes. To sketch. To think. To have some peace and quiet away from the world.”
“And I’ve disrupted your peace,” she said looking up at him.
“No. It’s good that you’ve disrupted me. I spend too much time wrapped up in myself. I forget to eat and I sleep little. It’s good you’re here.”
Caroline smiled. “Then I’m glad.”
“Speaking of eat, have you? I know a café nearby that serves excellent food. It’s but a short journey from here.”
Caroline shook her head. “I can’t have supper with a man I barely know,” she told him.
“I’m surprised you care about such things. You seem very modern in some of your charity work. It’s a light supper. And we aren’t strangers,” he told her.
“We are basically strangers,” she told him.
“When we eat and talk together, we will be strangers no more,” he returned.
It was not normal that a man and woman who were not related or engaged should eat out alone, but what harm could come from it? She realized she was hungry.
Caroline looked about and saw the couple had moved along and the children and nanny all looked tired and ready for a nap.
?
??I suppose a light supper wouldn’t hurt,” she said agreeing.
He smiled. “I’ll hail a cab.”
???
Seated across from the Inspector, Caroline realized she had never dined with a man at a restaurant besides her father. She felt a little reckless as she sat across the small table from a man she barely knew. No one seated inside the small café knew that they were not related nor married, and what was the harm she told herself. When they ordered their teas and steak and kidney pies, she smiled at him and waited for him to speak.
“Tell me about yourself.” He said. “I don’t know much about you.”
“I’m the daughter of a doctor. My mother died in childbirth with my sister. I was raised by my father and his mother, my grandmother,” Caroline told him. “I enjoy reading, sewing and helping others.”
Their tea arrived and she added milk to hers while he sipped his, adding only a pinch of sugar.
“I’m actually working on something very exciting,” her eyes were bright as she told him. “My father is helping me. As a woman I can’t own property but he’ll buy the property for me and I’ll be an estate agent of sorts,” she smiled. “I plan on re-developing a building and then placing people of need into it.”
“Very commendable,” he said watching her. “Your father is very generous.”
“He is. Very much so. It’s just one building and it won’t change overnight I know, but it’s a start. And I have to do something. The squalor of the slums is inhumane.”
Their steak and kidney pies were placed before them as Val nodded in agreement to her words. “The slums are notorious. Rife with violence and filth. I’ve seen it.”
“As have I,” she nodded.